Stuyvesant Town

February 20, 2014

Wendi Liu for WSN

In a bustling city where the most wallet-friendly apartments can often be cramped, shoebox-sized rooms, Stuyvesant Town offers a unique residential alternative. The largest single residential apartment complex in Manhattan, Stuytown is bordered by 14th Street and 20th Street between First Avenue and Avenue C.

Home to many NYU upperclassmen, as well as a mix of young families and senior citizens, Stuytown offers a wide variety of campus-style amenities. Each apartment building is equipped with its own laundry rooms, although it can be a little pricier than the NYU dorm rate. The complex features a cafe, study lounge and a fitness gym, all surrounding a courtyard at the center of the complex called the Stuyvesant Oval.

However, if you are moving off-campus for the first time, Stuytown’s 20 to 30 minute walk to and from Washington Square Park and sparse subway locations may be a little intimidating. Due to the burgeoning student population, NYU SafeRide will make stops in Stuytown, and NYU buses also have stops around Stuytown. However, do not count on taking the bus early in the morning, because it will most likely be crowded.

Overall, Stuytown is a campus away from NYU where students can live alongside friendly neighbors and building mates who may even let you in if you forget your building ID.

Comments

20 Responses to “Stuyvesant Town”

Denning on
February 20th, 2014 12:39 pm

To NYU. The model apartment picture you are showing is in
violation of the lease requirements for all PCVST apartments. As per PCVST CompassRock Management “Employ
the use of area rugs to cover 80% of the flooring in your apartment; this is
required under the terms of your lease.”

“Overall, Stuytown is a campus away from NYU where students can live alongside friendly neighbors and building mates who may even let you in if you forget your building ID.”
This text is in violation of PCVST Public Safety protocol. Please delete this text ASAP. I have notified PCVST management including the Chief of Security and the PCVST Tenants Association of this issue and the carpet lease violation picture.

I am an NYU grad and you need to remind students who move into Stuyvesant Town or Peter Cooper Village that this is a residential complex, NOT a dorm and that they need to behave accordingly. NO late night parties, NO drinking, smoking , leaving food or vomiting in hallways or staircases and if they are coming in at night NO screeching. And as the other commentator posted, they are required by the terms of their lease to cover at least 80% of their floors with carpeting or a rug.

I’d dread living beneath this or any similarly NOT appointed unit! The clickity clack of shoes in concert with the scraping & screeching of wooden table legs (and matching chairs) on the bare wood floors would be intolerable, rude, and it’s a lease violation. When you shoehorn this many people into these units the logic of the 80% carpet rule becomes clear. This is a close-knit community, not a campus; an apartment complex, not a dorm. It requires maturity, consideration, and adherence to community standards to fit in with our blend of families & senior citizens. Without these qualities and at least 80% of your floors appropriately covered, a student’s tenure here would certainly be an unhappy one. Play nicely and you’ll be as welcome as anyone else.

As a “NATIVE NYer,” and resident of StyTown for over 20 years, I can tell you for a FACT that a majority of residents do NOT open their arms to NYU students. Please do your research. StyTown is NOT a dorm-like facility, nor was it created to be. The writer of this article has obviously not done their research and I hope not a journalism major. The fact is NYU students have been mislead and many, not all, conduct themselves in an unwelcome manner. Believe me, if you think you can stumble in at 4am, make a ton of noise and not be woken up by Barney’s “I love you, you love me, we’re a happy family,” playing for several hours while you nurse a hang-over or work on your “studies,” , that’s just the tip of the payback you can expect. Find another place to live, cause the party STOPS here. Tenants have grouped together and we’re no longer going to be victims!!! You have been warned!!!

I don’t know where the writer of this article got their facts, but we tenants of PCVST do NOT like having students living among us. It is not that we dislike students per se, but we do not like the inconsiderate and obnoxious behavior of many of them. Living adjacent to an apartment that has no carpeting and is inhabited by a bunch of party animals who come home at 3 am and deprive of the last 3 or so hours of slumber before we have to get up and go face a hard day’s work, does not engender any kind of welcoming or warm feelings for our student neighbors. Maybe not all NYU students are bratty, rude and inconsiderate (and drunk or high most of the time), but a lot of them are.

This is NOT a dorm and was never designed to be one. Most of the tenants here are hardworking people who need their sleep and peaceful enjoyment of the apartments they pay rent for. Another thing, the behavior of the students reflects on the university, as well as the type of parents that raised them. Many of us are beginning to think that NYU will accept any young person who has a pulse and whose parents have a checkbook.

Another thing, don’t believe the guff about laundry rooms on site, etc. Sure, there are laundry rooms (except in some buildings that had their laundry rooms washed out to sea by Sandy in October 2012 and haven’t been replaced yet), but they are the nastiest, skeaviest, most putrid “facilities” you will ever see. The bathrooms at the beach are cleaner. To add insult to injury, the machines are inferior, bottom-of-the-line garbage that break down constantly (usually in mid-cycle) and don’t get anything clean on the rare occasion that they do work. Most of the time, you will find 50-70% of the machines out of order.

If I see students trying to buzz into my building without a key I slam the door in their faces. I will NEVER “let you in if you forget your Id”. This is not a dorm. I call the COPS (not security) the second I hear loud music or a party going on. Let the noise complaints add up until I get you EVICTED. This is not a dorm. When students try to sunbathe in the Oval I “accidentally” throw my son’s ball in their faces. How does your tan look with a black eye? Haha….Move in if you want to NYU, I enjoy making your lives miserable. Haha. This article is a joke!

Seriously? You’re how old? Because I would suspect this came from a 20 year old, but I’m guessing your “a father living here with your family”….. please. What is the harm in tanning (other than melanoma, but to each their own)

These buildings really are not the best choices for those students who want to party and do what most students like to do at university. There are lots of elderly people, folks with young kids and working people who don’t appreciate parties running into the wee hours. As a safety note It’s not a good idea to leave a door open for someone you don’t know. The buildings are sometimes subjected to criminals who rely on this practice. My friend was one of the people robbed and threatened with a man wielding an ice pick who got into these buildings this way.

No…students are NOT welcome here. Adding my voice as a resident of Stuy Town of 37 years. The strategy of renting to students as a way of churning & jacking up rents here has been a disaster for the family residents. Because students only stay for 1 to 3 years, the rents have skyrocketed due to the turn over. The students are not aware of the rent stabilization laws nor do they have any reason care. But the student turnover is being used to wreck life here. In addition, our blogs are replete with stories about student noise, partying, getting drunk & vomiting. This has been a middle class residential community for going on 70 years. It is NOT a dormitory or any part of a college campus. Please….stay away!

I think all of the old residents on this page need to chill. I’m an NYU student and love Stuy town minus the gumpy tenants that are posting here. Jon, did you really say no drinking? What is Stuytown Amish now? Did I miss something?

So what if I like to have some fun with friends past 8pm (aka your bedtime)? I pay full price for my apartment unlike all of you rent controlled dinosaurs. If I want to tan on the Oval, I’ll tan on the Oval. And Gilbert, if you’re ball “accidentally” finds it’s way to my eye, me and my bro’s fists might just “accidentally” find it’s way to your face.

Nick420
As an NYU alum I am ashamed that you are an NYU student. First of all , you can’t read. I didn’t object to any drinking, just drinking in public areas( where such drinking interferes with the lives of your neighbors) . As for noise, your noise is violating your neighbors’ warranty of habitability and will lead you (and CW , if it persists in refusing to enforce reasonable noise restrictions ) to being the subject of a lawsuit from your neighbors. I don’t think your parents signed up to pay legal fees on top of the rent they pay for you. And as for your snarky (look up the meaning of the word) comment about the definition of “late night” ,late night doesn’t mean 8PM for this not very old long time tenant

I’m a Stuy Town resident and non-NYU alum and found this link through the PCVST Facebook page. I think some of the previous comments are needlessly hostile and immature. If not for the management and increasingly higher rents, Stuy Town would be a great place to live. It’s not going to be the typical dorm life you may want at college. If you throw a party, someone will probably file a noise complaint (I’ve filed one, and have had one filed against me). Keep in mind your neighbors would be families, elderly, working people, etc. and common courtesy is expected (use carpeting, don’t bring the party home at 3am). There are NYU students above me with no carpeting and the noise is awful. Obviously there is a lot of frustration among other commenters about the changing demographic of the community and horrible management. Overall, I would not recommend anyone (students or other) move here until there is a change in ownership. I’ll be leaving at the end of my current lease.

Some of the comments here are worse than any imaginable amount of noise. To hope for the eviction of someone is really low, what a terrible process. You live in NYC you can’t expect peace and quiet all the time. If you’re having trouble with a neighbor you might try engaging in a conversation as opposed to calling security every time. Perhaps they don’t realize they are being such a disturbance. Open a line of communication so that you can easily let them know. Everyone has different standards of living, sorry you aren’t pleased with every aspect, we’re all paying the same rent (or in most of the below cases, much more would be my guess). I’m paying and working my own way no help from mommy and daddy so drop that argument. That doesn’t mean I can’t or shouldn’t have friends over on the weekend, I shouldn’t have to worry about my neighbors filing a complaint because they can hear us talk, which has happened. It’s ludicrous. And to be quite frank, security agrees. If you really want to be bothered by noise move to 2nd avenue where they are building the subway, I lived right on the avenue for 5 years and trust me NOTHING in stuytown compares.

Security does not agree with you, because it’s not just about talking. It’s about students coming to NYC from the comfort of their parent’s suburban homes and thinking that they can ACT like they’re in a dorm. Students need to get RUGS, take off their shoes and LIVE the 9 to 5 life-style (actually 9 to 9+) Manhattan workers lifestyle. Most of the elderly are long gone, so it’s not about grumpy old folks. It’s about treating a place that was created for the working middle class exactly that way. If we wanted to live in a LOUD place, then we would have, but we chose to live in this quiet “enclave,” the way it was meant to be.

It’s NYC there is no quiet “enclave.” I do live the 9-5 life Monday-Friday, if I want have friends over on the weekends there is NOTHING wrong with that. YOU don’t get to decide how I live my life. I pay my rent just the same as you. I also have RUGS in every room. The working middle class includes 20 somethings.

Why on earth would you want to live here? I have lived here 3 years and I am leaving at the end of my lease. I pay market rate yet they still raised my rent mid lease for items that they inferred were part of the rent when I moved in (security system, keyless entry and paved sidewalks). Then I got my renewal and it was $400 additional (3500/month 1 bedroom 70 year old building). Oh and try getting a hold of management. There is no longer a management office (it was destroyed in the flood) and they do not return calls or letters (unless its about your renewal). What a joke, better more modern apartments with doorman to be had for same or less.

Nice post Hanqing. PCVST is nice for anyone. It is a great place to find the quiet you need as a respite from the city. If that is to study, so be it. If it is to regain your composure before another day at work, then do that. There are no rules. What is wonderful is that you move to a neighborhood/community that offers security, peace and lots of amenities. For no fee apartments in nyc, visit http://www.pcvstliving.com. There is someone who can show you anything from one to four-bedroom units each day. Make sure to ask about the ice rink and the children’s indoor play center.